1. Just plug in your camera via USB then open Dragonframe. If it decides to connect to your computer webcam for some reason, you can change the connection in a menu at the top (I forget the name of the menu). You don't need the CDs, but if you want the EOS Utility, you can download it from the Canon website, just go to the page of your camera and look under the downloads.

2. I most of the time shoot in Small Fine JPG. It's larger than 1080p, so I have a bit of crop room. That's the easiest and fastest method of shooting. Lately, I've been shooting in Large standard JPG so I can render in 4K someday (If my editor would just support it haha). It's slower, takes up more space, but is sometimes worth it.

3. The best rule is to keep the ISO as low as possible, and lengthen the shutter speed it you want it brighter. Of course, there are times when you don't want to wait three seconds for a picture to take, so you just up your ISO, but never exceed 400 if you can help it, because it gets grainy after that. I can't say the exact shutters peed or ISO you'll need, because it all varies between shots. Experimentation is key.

4. Never leave white balance Auto. It'll change the color of your shots between frames. Set it to something that looks best with your lights. I usually keep mine on Florescent. Then, if I need to adjust colors, I do it in post.

5. I'd say buy an AC adapter. They fit into the battery slot and plug into the wall. The Kapaxen brand one I bought has been working well (though, if you dont want to take risks, buy an official canon one, but it'll be more expensive). Of course, you could buy two batteries and keep one charged constantly, but that's more hassle and cost than just buying an adapter.

6. Just remember to keep everything you can on manual, and if you're changing lenses, don't touch the insides of the camera or let dust in (I'm guilty of the dust, unfortunately).

I look forward to what you create with your DSLR!

EDIT: Nathan beat me to the post

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"Whatever you do, do all to the glory of God." - 1 Corinthians 10:31b

Nathan Wells and Rioforce,

Thank you both for your excellent posts while both are very similiar they were both very very helpful and answered my questions perfectly!

I will definitely take the time to explore through my DSLR and have already ordered a battery grip, extra battery, and will be ordering a AC adapater as well, being so expensive ordering from Canon alone I will be buying a third party one that is compatible with Canon.

Thanks again guys and I look forward to showing off my stuff soon

Sincerely,
Divine.

Yeah don't use those at the same time. There is a programming reason why this is the case. It basically has to do with the Canon SDK not having the ability to share a connection.

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Thank you for your comments AquaMorph and RioForce.

I got carried away with thinking it was the same as the webcam software.

Big thank you to RioForce, I managed to get it all working with your advice! So thank you very much for that!
Everything is back in order and I have checked out the video which was very very helpful. I do have just one final question thats on my mind and I really don't know what to do for it.

I just wanted to ask, (I apologize if it is silly) but I wanted to know what is the best format to shoot in (in dragonframe) ForlornCreature said he was using Large fine Jpeg I think it was? But he said it was 5k resolution, I normally shoot in 1280x720 so I was a bit confused about this how does that work? Do I just shrink it when I put it in my editing software? Or is there another way?

Also one last thing, the white balance which is a big thing I want to get out of the way, he didn't mention the manual use of white balance, do I just press 3 while selected on Manual to get the right WB? Cause I tried but I pressed test shot, and I don't think anything happened.

Besides that, I do want to say I have worked out my right exposure, aperture, f stop and shutter speed so thats all good just those last 2 things I don't know.

Once again thank you for your comments and all the help!

Sincerely,
Divine.

No problem, I'm glad I could help out a fellow animator.

In your editor (IDK what you use, but it's the same basic process with almost every editor), you crop the top and bottom off each frame in order to achieve the aspect ratio you want to use (for example, 16:9 or 2.35:1). Since Large JPG shoots 5K, you can render out 4K video (though, most consumer level editors don't support that). If you render in 720p (which is 1280x720), then you should just use Small JPG (preferably fine jpg). But in reality, you can render out 1080p (1920x1080) with Small JPG. For larger resolutions, shoot in larger JPG, but from what I'm hearing from you, you don't need to shoot in large JPG (but you can always change your mind later).

(I hope that makes sense)

I'm confused what you mean, but I'll try to answer it the best I can.

The white balance is set below where you set the aperture, shutter speed, and ISO. Just make sure it isn't on Auto and you're fine. Like I said earlier, I recommend Florescent.

Pressing NUMPAD 3 goes to the live view, whether on the Cinematography or on Animation windows. Pressing Enter takes a photo, whether on Cinematography or Animation. Test shot takes a picture and puts it in the test folder (you probably know all this stuff already).

I hope I explained it, I'm not sure if that'd very clear. Ask again if you need more info.

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"Whatever you do, do all to the glory of God." - 1 Corinthians 10:31b

Ideally, you should set the aspect ratio mask to whatever you are filming in. This way, you can frame shots so they look good with the ratio. But the aspect ratio mask is just an overlay on Dragonframe. The raw files are unaffected by the mask, they still take at full size.

If you export as image sequence, I'm pretty sure (not positive) that it will apply this aspect ratio mask and crop your images to whatever aspect ratio you set it to. However, I personally don't recommend exporting as a sequence from Dragonframe. In your Dragonframe project folder, there'll be the take folder, then the exposure folder (it'll end with X1, if it's the first exposure, so if you were on the 7th take, and first exposure, the folder would look like Project_07_X1). That's where the raw frames are saved to. I recommend importing these raw images as a sequence into Vegas or Premiere then crop the top and bottom off the image to achieve the aspect ratio you were shooting in. This allows you a bit of expandability if you wanted to crop in a bit, or move the frame up or down a bit.

Florescent isn't mandatory, I just personally find (and know others that feel this same way) that it works best with certain lamps. If it looks off to you and you found a different one, change it, just as long as it's not manual. I'm confused by shooting or night or at day, do you mean shooting night and day lighting in-set, or shooting night or day in real life? Either way, the white balance shouldn't change this, since your lamps will be setup to simulate the proper lighting and all other lights and windows will be unlit.

I'm glad I could help, keep the questions coming if you need anything else, and I'll try to answer them to the best of my ability (or if anyone else wants to speak up they can )

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"Whatever you do, do all to the glory of God." - 1 Corinthians 10:31b

TL;DR, a Take is the easy way of taking more shots without making new projects.

But, if you do want to read it all, I'll outline it for you:

• You open Dragonframe, click New Scene, name it, pick a number (this is the take number!) and pick a folder

• You take a photo

• The photo is saved in the location you saved your scene project.

• You Conform the Take when you finish the shot (this cleans up the files, deletes the deleted ones, etc)

The folder structure is as follows:
  -PROJECT.dgn (Your project folder)
    -PROJECT_Take_001 (The take within your project)
      -PROJECT_01_X1 (The exposure folder, where the raw frames are actually stored)

The project is, well, the project. Within a project, there's a sub-project of sorts. This is called a Take. You can use this Take to film a new shot in, or to reshoot a shot without deleting the other one. This makes it easy, because you don't have to have an entirely new .dgn project for every single shot. The Exposure folder is simply how Dragonframe sorts it. Some professional animators take multiple exposures for each frame (for example, HDR photos or 3D photos), so their frames would be under X1, X2, X3, etc. But for us simple animators, we use one exposure, (X1). That's where the frames are stored.

You take these frames and import them directly into your video editor. This saves harddrive space, because instead of going through the Dragonframe GUI and exporting the frames, you simply use the raw frames in editing. I hope I explained that right, it's really late.

Very valid concerns. Overheating? I don't know, you'll just have to try it and keep an eye on it. It'll get warm, but IDK about overheating. Making the battery life shorter? No, that won't happen (most likely, I'm no expert), because you won't have your battery in your camera when using the AC adapter (your AC adapter does go into the battery slot, right?). An adapter can only kill the battery life if the battery is actually in.

I hope this helps, I'm happy to save you that frustration you were talking about.

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"Whatever you do, do all to the glory of God." - 1 Corinthians 10:31b